Tour de France 2012: interactive stage-by-stage guide

Stage-by-stage guide to every section of the Tour de France in France and
Belgium.

The 99th Tour de France runs from Saturday 30th June to Sunday 22nd July 2012. This race will be made up of 1 prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,497 kilometres (2,172 miles). The prologue and first two stages are in Belgium before the cyclists enter France for the remaining 18 stages, finishing at the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Out of the 22 cycling teams taking part Team Sky will be the only exclusively sponsored British one in this year’s race.

Tour de France hill climbs fall into five categories, roughly corresponding to the gears used when driving an old car up a hill. A hill that the car can climb in third gear is a category 3; in second gear, a category 2; and so on. Hills that are so steep that the car can't even climb up it are known as category HC or category H for short. HC is an acronym for the French term Hors Catégorie which in English means beyond categorisation.